Hot Weekend

It was another weekend in town for me, although of course there was some classic action over in France and some good racing closer to home over in Alabama.  Saturday started out warm and humid, pretty well setting the stage for the next few days.  I rode out early to meet the Giro group at Starbucks, taking the opportunity to test out my new lights courtesy of a big collegiate team discount from Cateye.  I knew I wouldn't be doing the whole ride.  The annual Tour de Lis charity run and ride was scheduled to begin around 8 am, and I was already decked out in my Tulane Cycling gear in order to help populate Tulane's little booth at the event.  So with that in mind, I didn't hold back too much as the Giro headed out down Hayne Blvd. since I was going to be turning back about halfway out  anyway.  Jordan was doing the same, so at least I had some company for the ride back to City Park. 

The Tour de Lis had a pretty good turnout, as did Tulane Cycling, and although we mostly just hung around and chatted among ourselves, it was good PR for the club, especially when they headed out together for a few ceremonial laps around the little two-mile loop.  GNO Cyclery had gotten Trek to come with two of their "test ride" trucks, which seemed to be pretty popular.  By the time I got home around noon-ish, I guess the temperature was somewhere north of 80F and was already starting to feel more like summer than spring. In the early afternoon I remembered that the Sunny King criterium up in Anniston was being webcast, so I fired up the laptop and spend a few hours watching the races.  For someone who used to have to wait a month to read about the Tour de France in imported magazines, it is pretty amazing to be sitting on the couch at home watching people I know battle it out at a top quality event.  There were riders I knew in most of the races, and some of them fared quite well.  I was sorry I'd missed seeing Tim Regan take 2nd place in the Masters race, but I was able to watch Woody come back from a mid-race crash in a huge Cat. 2-3 field to finish 3rd.  Then I watched Steve Johnson and Robert Monahan in the Cat. 4 race, and Debbie Milne in the Colavita-dominated Women's race.  Later in the evening was the Pro-Cat. 1 race, which looked to be pretty fast and aggressive.  I think that riders who weren't in the front 25 or so must have had a really hard time doing anything but hanging on for dear life in the huge strung-out pack as the big continental pro teams kept things lively at the front.

So Sunday I was ready for a hard ride and decided to make the trip across the lake for the last of the regular "standing" Sunday northshore rides.  It was already quite warm by the time our 16-rider group started out for the usual 65 mile loop, and with a brisk south wind behind us and a few strong riders up in front, there wasn't much holding back the speed.  I knew it was going to be a fast one.  By the time we hit Highway 10, less than halfway through the ride, we were already down to about ten riders.  When we finally stopped to regroup at the end of Sie Jenkins Road at 38 miles we were down to just six.  It had been a while since I'd been able to make any of the northshore rides, but I was feeling pretty good thanks to my easier- than- usual Saturday ride. Even so, those last miles straight into the growing headwind from Tung Road to Lee Road Middle School were kind of painful - which of course was just what I'd been looking for.